The Ghost Frequency
by NursingSchoolGrad
Summary: Jack and Maddie Fenton had given up their Phantom-hunting ways, but that didn't mean they had given up their interests in ghosts. But were they ready for the 18.98Hz "Ghost Frequency?"


**The Ghost Frequency**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom ****® but anyone can own the ghost frequency with Audacity ****® and a good pair of headphones. Jack and Maddie were so cheated.**

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It probably spoke volumes that Danny Phantom had become so used to his parents knowing that he was part ghost that he forgot to switch back to his human form around them now. Jazz and Danny's parents had been out of town at the Ghosts & No-see-ums Convention in Florida. Usually his parents brought back only a baker's dozen of mosquito bites, but today they brought back something more. Danny lazily floated through the ceiling into the living room as they began to open the door, beating Jazz who had been cooking normal, decidedly non-ecto food in the kitchen.

"Danny!" His mom said happily, wrapping Danny in a tight hug, "You've grown!"

"I have?" Danny asked, then he realized he was floating and dropped to stand on the floor.

"Well, I guess that you haven't yet," Jack said, "but there's a lot of time for that."

"It wouldn't be surprising if he had grown," Jazz said, still wearing her apron. "After all, I've made sure that he's had plenty of nutritious food while you've been gone."

"Lunch Lady," Danny said, crossing his arms.

"It's not my fault some of us our picky eaters around here." Jazz grinned.

"Speaking of picky eating, does anyone want some of my ecto-fudge?" Jack pulled a box out of his suitcase. "Going once, going twice…"

"Wait, honey," Maddie said, "we haven't even shown them the newest invention."

Jazz and Danny inwardly groaned and tried not to show it on their faces.

"I can't believe we didn't think of it first!" Jack set the fudge on the coffee table and bent down to pull a CD out of the suitcase.

"It's a recording of the mysterious ghost frequency," Maddie explained.

"Yep, we play it and it will attract ghosts." Jack walked over to their CD player and put it in the tray.

"Wait!" Danny shouted, "Let me close the portal first." He ran down to the basement and quickly closed the door around the portal.

"I thought we told you not to open the portal when we were gone," Jack said when Danny flew back into the living room.

"Well," Danny began, out of habit he wanted to lie, but they had agreed to not have secrets anymore, so he told them the truth. "I wanted to ask Clockwork something – I told you, he's one of the good ghosts – and then Cujo wandered off into the Ghost Zone and I wanted him to come back, and I kind of forgot to close the portal afterwards."

_'That ghost dog is more trouble than he's worth,' _Maddie thought, but after she and Jack had spent years telling the kids that they couldn't afford pets, she couldn't bring herself to ban the dog. Plus, she could watch him and make observations about ghosts from him, because, unlike her son, he didn't mind her staring at him.

Jazz in an abrupt attempt to distract her parents from the new CD proclaimed, "I made lunch, you know."

"Yes, Jazz dear, but we've waited so long to hear the recording," Maddie said and Jack grinned and hit the play button.

"Time to find out if this was worth fifty bucks!" Jack said, leaning back into the sofa.

A really low noise, something like a clicking and humming at the same time, came from the speakers; Danny thought that it sounded sort of like a cat purring.

"If anyone still wants lunch, I'll be in the kitchen!" Jazz walked away.

"Wait! Jazz!" Danny turned and caught up with his sister.

Lunch was actually not half-bad, Jazz had cooked soft tacos and tossed a salad. Even their parents, bored after five minutes of listening to the monotonous ghost frequency, had come in for lunch, but the CD player's humming could still be heard from the dining room.

"That ghost frequency gives me the chills," Jack said.

"But, don't you think that it is weird that we haven't heard it before?" Jazz asked. "You'd think we'd have heard it before with all the ghost-fighting you do."

"I wonder how long it will be before we see a ghost," Maddie sighed, completely ignoring the fact that Phantom sat right across the table from her. "I don't know how long I want to listen to this. I think it's giving me a headache."

"We have to listen to the recording all the way through, though, so we will know if it works." Jack took a bite of a taco, but even he looked a little uneasy.

"Danny, what do you think?" Maddie asked.

"It doesn't bother me," Danny said.

"But, you're Phantom right now, shouldn't you feel drawn to the sound?" Maddie continued.

"No, I don't. I feel drawn to lunch," Danny said rather sarcastically.

"Shouldn't you be eating in your human form?" Jack asked, "Maybe this is why you're not taller."

"I have to be ready in case those ghosts show up," Danny said, ignoring the comment about his height. True, he was seventeen now and hadn't hit the growth spurt yet, but he theorized that he was spending so much time as Phantom that his human side didn't have enough time to age normally. He hoped this would help him live longer, plus it seemed that now that his secret identity was out, people only wanted to see him as Phantom, not Fenton. The ghost powers weren't a bad side effect either and he felt freer in Phantom form.

"I swear, the only time I see you human now is when you're sleeping," Maddie said. "If you have a case of ecto-acne there is nothing to be ashamed about. Just tell us."

"I don't have ecto-acne, mom," Danny replied. "Just regular acne. Human acne. Acne that doesn't affect ghosts."

Jazz suddenly whipped around and looked over her shoulder, instinctively grabbing the Fenton Thermos. Then she looked blankly at the wall before turning back to the others. "Sorry, I thought I saw something."

"Do we have the ghost shield up?" Jack asked. "Maybe that's why none of the spooks have come to visit."

"No," Danny said then thought, _'It's just that they sold you shoddy merchandise at the convention.'_

Maddie put her hand on her forehead as if she was in pain.

Jack sat quietly, contemplating the sound of the CD in the next room.

Jazz groaned. "Mom, Dad, can't you turn the CD off?"

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," Jack muttered. "Besides, it isn't affecting Danny."

"Danny's a ghost!" Jazz huffed.

"No, it's that they cheated you at the ghost convention." Danny complained.

"You can't deny that it's making us feel weird, though," Maddie said.

"Isn't that a placebo affect?" Danny asked.

"It's even affecting Jazz," Maddie said. "She knows so much about psychology: the placebo affect shouldn't work on her."

"That's not how psychology works, mom," Jazz said.

"Okay, fine," Danny said, and there was a flash of light as the rings turned him back into a human. He grabbed another taco.

He had been eating a couple minutes when he said, "You're right, that sound really is annoying."

"See, Danny agrees with me," Jazz said. "Let's turn it off."

"No," Maddie said. "A headache is justifiable in the name of science." But even as she said it she leaned back and shut her eyes, trying to tune it out.

"I think they should've named this the 'human frequency' since it only affects humans," Danny said.

"Well, it definitely explains why they didn't let us play a sample track at the convention." Jack rubbed his hair.

"Well, if no one's going to turn it off, I'm going to the library." Jazz stood up, took her plate to the sink, and started for her room to grab her book bag.

"Jazz, wait!" The others said.

"We…" Jack said.

"Want to come with you too?" Danny finished for them.

"Well, it's settled, then, I'm turning it off," Maddie said, dashing to the living room to turn it off as fast as possible.

When the sound stopped, the others laughed.

"I… I can't believe we listened to it for so long." Jack grinned.

"I'm just glad that's over," Maddie sighed. "But I'm going to take a nap, this headache is making me dizzy."

"Ecto-fudge will make it better," Jack said.

"Uh, I don't think it will, dear. I'll see you in a few hours." Maddie walked up the stairs.

"This family is so weird," Jazz said.

"Maybe mom and dad will think twice before buying anything more from those conventions," Danny whispered hopefully to Jazz and pulled the CD out of the player to stare at it.

"I wouldn't count on it," Jazz said, smiling at Danny. Truth be told, she really liked seeing him in his human form. After the disasteroid she thought it was good for Danny that he was no longer hiding his ghost form, but now she doubted that he'd really come to terms with being both human and ghost. It felt as if he was hiding his human form now.

Danny put the CD back in the case and Jazz pulled out a couple of ghost research journals. Danny expected she'd write letters to the editors refuting the claims about ghosts that the magazines had made. Not that the editors would publish the letters, despite the Fentons now being famous in the ghost-hunting world, the parents, surprisingly, had avoided publishing many new studies about ghosts. They realized that they wanted to protect Danny. If, when Danny was an adult, he let them do scientific tests on him, fine, but they didn't want to push him. Right now their family was more important.

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_Endnote: At work three of my coworkers say that they have seen a man that isn't real out of the corners of their eyes at the end of one of the halls. This hallway is rather dark at the end and has a humming mechanical room and a desolate stairwell. I've never seen anything weird in that hallway, but the humming is a bit spooky and I wanted a theory for what was happening so I searched the web. Supposedly, the audio frequency 18.98Hz vibrates at a rate that affects vision, particularly the peripheral vision that is more sensitive to movement and light. Our peripheral vision is naturally indistinct and our brain often tries to find familiar shapes in blurred vision. Thus, we assume peripheral vision movement is another human, or for this theory, a ghost. Excited, I listened to recordings of the 18.98Hz twice. I don't recommend it. I did not see any ghosts, it gave me a headache, and made it hard to see in the dark._

_Also, thanks to my sister for suggesting that the sound of the mechanical room might have something to do with the haunted hallway and for beta-reading this story._


End file.
